Windsor Castle (ship, 1922)
 The Windsor Castle with its original four chimneys before reconstruction in 1936
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The Windsor Castle (II) was a passenger ship put into service in 1922 , which was used for the British shipping company Union-Castle Line in passenger and mail traffic between Great Britain and South Africa . On March 23, 1943, the ship, which served as a troop transport during World War II , was sunk by an air torpedo on the Algerian coast .
prehistory
In February 1913, Union-Castle Line ordered two new, large express liners from the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for their established passenger and postal services to South Africa. This was one of the UK's most important trade routes at the time. Both ships were supposed to have a feature that only a few passenger ships had until then: four funnels. The plan was for at least one of the two ships to be operational by 1915. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, however, the shipping company's plans were thwarted. Initially, it was assumed that the war would only last a few months. 1915, however, when only one of the two ships keel was laid, it became apparent that the war would not be over so quickly. Construction was then stopped without work on the second ship even having started.
Construction could only be resumed after the end of the war. The ship, which had been laid down four years earlier, was launched in 1919. It was named Arundel Castle . The contract signed before the war provided for a sister ship, so that the keel of Windsor Castle was laid in the same year . Although the blueprints for both ships were drawn up before World War I, nothing was changed in the original design. Both ships received the intended four funnels, a dark, elegant hull and white-painted superstructures. They were two of only 14 four-funneled ships ever built and the only two of them that were not put into service for North Atlantic traffic between Europe and North America . They were also the only two four chimneys in the history of the Union Castle Line.
Early years
The 18,967 GRT steam turbine ship was ultimately built at the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank near Glasgow , as Harland & Wolff's capacities were already exhausted with the construction of the sister ship Arundel Castle (18,980 GRT). On March 9, 1921, the 192.77 meter long and 20.10 meter wide passenger and mail ship was launched. It was designed by Edward VIII. , The Prince of Wales , in the name of Windsor Castle baptized. This was a great honor as it was the first time a passenger ship had been christened by a member of the royal family. She was the second ship of that name. As early as 1872, Castle Mail Packet Company Ltd. (known as the Castle Line ) launched a ship called Windsor Castle (a third ship of the same name entered service in 1959.)
The Windsor Castle offered 234 first class passengers, 362 second class passengers and 274 third class passengers. In addition to the four funnels, the ship had two masts and two propellers and could reach a top speed of 18 knots. In April 1922, the Windsor Castle ran out on her first voyage on the Southampton - Cape Town route . The Table Bay was reached on May 9 1,922th She was one of the most prominent ships on this route. The two sister ships were the largest and fastest ships on the Union-Castle Line at the time.
The luxurious facilities included a swimming pool , a gym and electrically operated elevators . Attention was also paid to the safety equipment. The ship was equipped with a double floor that extended the entire length of the ship and had enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew members. In addition, the hull was divided into twelve watertight compartments.
In the years that followed, many new, more modern ships were put into service. In 1936, the Windsor Castle and the Arundel Castle were therefore rebuilt and modernized by Harland & Wolff in order to keep up with the competition. In this train, the Windsor Castle received a new bow , new turbines, new boilers and a 25 feet (7.62 meters) longer hull. In addition, there was a switch from coal to oil combustion. The maximum speed increased to 20 knots. The passenger capacity was reduced to 604 travelers. In addition, the four chimneys were dismantled and replaced with two new, shorter ones. As a result of the modifications, the tonnage increased from 18,967 GRT to 19,118 GRT. In January 1938, the Windsor Castle resumed service.
Second World War and sinking
In September 1939, was Windsor Castle from the Royal Navy for troop transport determined. In the course of this, her hull was painted gray and many of the portholes and windows of the deck structures were covered.
On November 4, 1940, the ship was attacked west of Ireland by several Focke-Wulf Fw 200 of I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 40 . A 250 kg bomb hit the first class smoking room, but did not detonate and the ship safely reached its destination port of Greenock the following day . In 1942, the Windsor Castle served as a troop transport on the North Atlantic to bring troops from Canada and the United States to Europe. She and her sister ship also took part in the Africa campaign.
In the early morning of March 23, 1943, Windsor Castle was 110 nautical miles northwest of Algiers in the convoy KMF 11, hit by several Heinkel He 111H-6 LT of I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 26 with an air torpedo and sank 13 hours later. In addition to 290 crew members, there were 2,699 soldiers on board. However, there was only one fatality, machinist William Ogilvie Mann. The ship sank stern first. The ship's captain, John C. Brown, gave the last position 37 ° 27 'N - 00 ° 54' E. The survivors were rescued by the destroyers Whaddon , Eggesford and Douglas .
Web links
- Full history of Windsor Castle
- Timeline and picture in the Clydebuilt Ships Database
- Information in the wreck database
- Photo gallery
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronik des Maritime War 1939–1945, November 1940. Accessed on January 19, 2017 .
- ↑ Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the Sea War 1939–1945, March 1943. Accessed on May 5, 2020 .